On Our Desk - 14

On Our Desk 14

Another month, another rising pile of bits and bobs in the corner and another burst of spring cleaning for us here in the office as we sift through all the things that slipped through the cracks and give them some coverage.

So then, what have we got to amuse ourselves with this time around?

Well, as ever we’ve got a USB drive to kick things off with. Round-ups like this just don’t seem to work unless you’ve got a thumb drive to fiddle with and dunk in water, but this time we’ve chosen something a little special. The Earthdrive 4GB from ATP is part of a project to create green tech made from recycleable material.

To achieve this, the Earthdrive is made from corn-based polyester plastics and biodegradable plastics – but more on that in a minute.

Touching base with the modding community, we’ve also got a set of aluminium and rubber case feet from MNPCTech which Tim has a look at. They should be a good choice for anyone who wants to do a touch of modding but lacks the equipment to cut their own metal.

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After that we’ve got something a bit more casual and accessible – a Nintendo DS game called Doodle Hex that casts players as young wizards and witches in training who must cast spells by drawing runes on the touchscreen. Our latest work experience placement will once again be providing a casual gamer's viewpoint of Doodle Hex, as well as helping to review some of the other products on show here.

All this reviewing is hard work though, so after that we’ll be taking a nap on a huge Sumo Omni beanbag and letting you know exactly how comfortable that is...and how ridiculous it feels to sit on one during important meetings with our new owners, Dennis Publishing.

Of course, just reviewing a beanbag is fairly boring work and we’re not the type who can just sit there idly for hours on end, honest. Luckily, we were able to keep ourselves occupied with a copy of Mass Effect: Revelation, a rather good tie-in novel which acts as a prequel to the game and is written by Drew Karpyshyn. We thought we may as well offer up our thoughts on that too.

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Then next we take a look at the latest peripherals and had a fiddle with Belkin’s new gaming speedpad. Belkin’s teamed up with Razer for the latest N52 Tournament Edition, and finally, a late entry was the Keysonic Intuition-XL ACK-5600 ALU+ keyboard that Richard has a look at. Its solid aluminium construction features fast laptop keys and a sharp (thankfully not literally) anodised black, brushed style. We’ve been having a go with these and are finally able to report back on whether or not they're any good.

So, that’s it for this month – but remember that if there’s anything in particular that you’d like to see reviewed then we’re always open to suggestions. You can contact us all through About Page, or leave us a message on the forums.